Middletown advocates push for Newfield Corridor trail

Beth Barnes of Prospect walks her beagle Gracie alongside her brother, John Nesbit, of Wallingford, along the Farmington Canal Heritage Greenway in Cheshire. The two grew up near the canal in Cheshire, and remember when there used to be tracks instead of a paved trail. As kids, they used to swim in the brook underneath the bridge when it was a swimming hole. (Courant file Photo) (Bettina Hansen / Hartford Courant)

Advocates for a 3-mile extension of the Mattabessett bike trail say that the trail will help link residential neighborhoods to Middletown’s downtown and also assist in the completion of the 111-mile Central Connecticut Loop trail connecting dozens of communities in Greater Hartford.

The trail, called the Newfield Corridor, would link Veteran’s Memorial Park with the existing Mattabessett bike path. The trail’s proposed route follows the west side of Newfield Street and connects to the end of the bike path around Tuttle Road. The project is being handled by the city.

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The trail would run close to Lawrence Elementary School, Keigwin Middle School and Middletown High School, allowing students to use the path to get to and from school.

Executive director of the Jonah Center, John Hall, said the project would connect several highly populated Middletown neighborhoods, including the Westfield and Westlake areas, and allow for greater pedestrian access to Main Street.

“It connects those residents with Veterans Park and gets them very close to downtown,” advocate John Hall said. “The Mattabessett bike trail gets a lot of use from people walking for exercise or walking their dogs. This is going to add another 3 miles to that loop, so the recreational potential is great.”

Hall said the Jonah Center and other advocates have been pushing for the trail to be built since 2012. At a meeting in February, dozens of residents from Middletown, Meriden and Portland showed up to support the project.

“I’m pretty confident the city will be going forward with this project,” Hall said. “There’s many layers and levels of benefit.”

Multi-use trails have become popular in communities across Connecticut. In Fairfield County, the Norwalk River Valley trail is being built as a link between Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk and Rogers Park in Danbury. In Central Connecticut, the Air Line trail, the Hop River trail and the Farmington Canal Heritage trail have become go to spots for cycling enthusiasts and walkers.

The Newfield Corridor would also help link two of Connecticut’s longest multi-use trail systems, Hall said. If completed, the 3-mile extension of the 4.5-mile Mattabessett bike trail would complete nearly 8 miles of the Farmington Canal Connector route, which will eventually link the Air Line trail with the Farmington Canal Heritage trail through 16 miles of trail.

If linked, the two trails would create a 111-mile loop around Central Connecticut.

“There are economic benefits and considerable health benefits — it’s been well documented that when people live in close proximity to a multi-use trail, rates of heart disease and diabetes go down,” Hall said. “And when you add these bike trails to Middletown and Portland, it makes it a more desirable community to move into.”